If I can’t find the right name for a character, I can’t write that character. I can try. I will get words on a page, but if the name isn’t just right, the whole feel will be superficial. Like I’m playing at writing, instead of telling you a real story about these real…er…. people.
The characters have to be so freaking real to me, that whatever they’re called is of course their name, and to call them anything else would just be wrong. Like if someone started calling me Antoinette instead of Toni, I would know they were (a) on crack or (b) didn’t know me [because Toni, in my case, is not short for Antoinette], or (c) really wanted to be annoying.
I once had a discussion with my screenwriting agent about a script that had a lot of magical action in the story. My agent, who was very sweet, was also notorious for not always reading the action lines (the prose) of a script, and because she had skimmed over some critical action descriptions, she had gotten lost in the rules of the world. She asked me a question about those rules, and I said, “Well, on page 23, see, Frank said [blah blah blah],” and then she asked another question, and I said, “Well, on page 37, Frank explains [blah blah blah],” and then another question, and I said, “On page 59, Frank does [action blah blah blah] and then tells Charlie [blah blah blah],” and this went on for another ten minutes until she pounded on her desk with the palm of her hand and said, “Toni! FRANK IS NOT REAL.”
You couldda heard crickets in that office. I felt like something had been ripped from my chest, like she’d just murdered one of my dearest friends, because of course he was real! He was right there on page…
Oh.
Well.
Okay, then. Maybe not real real, but real to me. And, I hoped, real enough to the reader that if Frank said it, then it had to be true. (grin) Because Frank didn’t lie. (He was a sweet guy, Frank. A psychologist who’d lost his wife and had screwed up her afterlife, too, so he hadn’t recovered, ever, from that mistake, though he tried to help others [Charlie and Emma] not make the same one he had made. Poor guy. I always felt really bad for Frank.)
See?
(Frank keeps telling me that his story–well, really, it’s Charlie and Emma’s story, but Frank doesn’t know that–needs to be a book. He’s a little put out that Bobbie Faye got to start off as a script and then turn into not one but three books, but I have explained to him that I’m not quite ready to do that. Soon, maybe. But not for at least a year.)
Ironically, in my most recent book, I ended up with a character named Jack. Now, there are a million Jacks out there, and I tried hard to talk this character out of that name, but he wouldn’t listen. Because, technically, he is named Jackson, and that ends up playing a really critical role in a choice that gets made in the story and he pointed that out to me (long before I even realized there was going to be a choice, and how that was going to affect the story), so it’s kinda hard to argue with him, when he came prepped with logic and better debate skills than I have. [There is probably a medicine for the fact that I think “They” are actually better than “I” am at debating, but we’ll just roll with “Writer Brain” as my excuse.]
I especially love it when characters so clearly embody a name that they leap off the page, and all you have to do in a room full of readers is say the first name, and most people know who you’re talking about. And like most authors, I’m always on the lookout for great names, memorable names (Frank notwithstanding).
What’s your favorite character’s name? What the most overused name that you hope to never see (except for Jack… y’all would love Jack.)
Oh, I totally get you about them being real! I love it when they become real when I read them as well. Then they tend to become my book boyfriends….or my new BFF in the case of the awesome girl characters…..
I’m currently arguing with a character, because he won’t tell me his name. Or he keeps changing his name, I’m not sure which. I’ve done the outline and have already changed his name six times. Nothing works. I’ve gone through baby books, DVD and tv collections, but nothing works. He is just not ready to be known yet, I guess. Which is pain, but perhaps that’s his way of telling me I need to finish my current work in progress before investing any time in him. Whatever his name is.
I’m loving the current one I’m working though, because the guys are working for a secret government organisation that had to fake their deaths when they recruited them. They gave up their previous names, and so now tend to go by nicknames instead. My personal favourite would have to be Tricky, simply because his name is so random (his previous name was Richard, so I guess it kinda does tie in, but he’s not a Richard, he’s definitely a Tricky!), but there’s also Rocky, Ollie, Mack, Lex……
Tanya, I love it — love the Tricky nickname. That is definitely memorable! And love the concept, too. 🙂 Good luck with that one!
They ARE real – to us. And I don’t think any name is off-limits. I have a story where the heroine is Mary Jones, and it fits for her and her situation. I tried giving her something less bland, but she wouldn’t have it. So Mary she’ll remain – unless some editor somewhere someday convinces me differently. ;o)
Isn’t it funny how stubborn they can be? Worse than teenagers. 🙂
Yeah, they’re real. They’re very real. And some of them have really lousy attitudes.
Sorry, I digress…
Oh, and the name Jack is so overused, but it works for almost every character who gets the name. Especially those who are just plain tough, because that’s a freakin’ tough name.
As for me, when I first meet characters, they just sort of start talking, so the name comes later for me. No human being is born with an intuition of what their name is, we just learn it because that’s what our parents and relatives and teachers and everybody call us. Some of us get tired of it and try a nickname or a middle name at some point, but for the most part what we’re called when we’re young is what we go by. But I think my characters are different. They have to find their name, but once they do, they let me know that I need to stop trying other names because it makes them irritable.
And there’s not much worse than an irascible protagonist.
Well, maybe an irascible antagonist, but you get the idea….
LOL on the lousy attitudes. I have a couple of characters like that, who have been extremely difficult to break open and understand/write on the page, and some days, I just want to erase them from existence and find a nice, pliable character. Of course, then the story would be boring. bleh. Damned characters.
I’m sort of the same way but with titles. If I don’t have a title for my book, I can’t get started. Even if I don’t know what the book is about yet, I still can’t do anything without a title.
Character names, on the other hand, seem to be less of a hassle for me. I always have the names for the characters before I develop them and I never change the name….except for maybe their last name. And the characters are always called by a shorten version like Casey, or Lexie, or my current heroine Jesse (btw, that book–House of Cards– is free today at Amazon–shameless plug).
My favorite hero name is Michael….I don’t know why…maybe it’s a Catholic thing. hah Of course it’s also probably the most overused name…but it just works for me.
Can’t wait to see your next book in print!! Of course I’d read anything by you, even your grocery list. 😉
LOL. Well, my grocery list is very very boring these days (have been dieting–lost 14 lbs so far), but thank you–you rock. 🙂
I’m like that with titles, too. I’ve tried a couple of times to start something without a title and it just completely fizzled. And once (and only once), have I named something (the Bobbie Faye anthology short story) and then changed it right before publication. (The changes that St. Martins did to my original titles were their call, not mine.) The original Bobbie Faye short story just had the wrong title for the tone. (It was a depressing title. I was in a bad mood, I think–Mike had just been diagnosed and I wasn’t sure if I could bring the funny.) By the time it was time to publish it, wiser heads of the ladies in the antho prevailed and I came up with the current title (Bobbie Faye’s Whacked Out, No Good, Hot Mess of a Wedding).
I think that’s the title. Man, that feels like it’s been forever ago!
14 pounds!! Awesome!! I need to go on your diet! I’ve lost 15 lbs since June, but only because I became diabetic and didn’t know it. ::[
Oh, man, Terri, that is a bummer! I hope it’s not giving you a lot of trouble (the diabetes, not the weight loss).
Curran Lennart, you have to say that it is an original name. Overused? I can’t think of one.
oh, great name, Anne!
Hi Toni,
Names are so important to me when I’m writing a book. I do a lot of research so that they feel “right” in the story. One thing I hate is when I’m reading a book and many of the names start with the same sound (Jack, Jacob, Jake, Jordan, etc…) I also get a bit annoyed when too many characters have gender-nuetral names and you have to work to keep up with who is male and female.
Laura, oh, man, you nailed a pet peeve of mine, too. I read really quickly, and a lot of names that start with the same letter ends up just getting me confused, because I’ll think I’m reading about Joan and really the scene had John in it, and when he’s putting on the panty-hose and I hadn’t known he was cross-dressing… well, kinda really warps the story the author meant me to be reading.
great post toni – i love to give my characters really strange names, like nebuchadnezzar and mud, but just recently i wrote a book where i gave everyone “normal” names. it was a challenge! and yet they all seemed right to me – dan, ted, ryan, jen. i’m with you on the name having to be write or i can’t write the story.
Nebuchadnezzer and Mud. What. Freaking. Fabulous. Names.
(now I know who I’m going to bug for name help the next time I need a great and unusual name. 🙂 )
In my books–Blake Windsor is my favorite name. In other books — Roarke. Hands down.
But I don’t like confusing names, or names I can’t pronounce or remember. I’m reading a fantasy and I’m totally lost–can’t tell the difference between a person’s name and a place name.
Terry
Terry’s Place
Roarke. (sigh) Roarke. (more sighing).
How can anyone not love that guy. 🙂
And Blake Windsor — great name.
I’m with you on the fantasy things… I read a lot of fantasy, and I really hate it when they go nuts with the consonants / weird vowel combinations. I end up nicknaming everyone 3 or 4 letter names just so I can skip over the torture.
I know exactly what you mean, Toni! Like my Victoria Colby and Jess Harris characters. I love it when characters feel so real!
Yep, Deb, it’s just the only way they come alive for me!
I was lying down, half wishing I was asleep, and I literally LEAPED off my bed to come and reply to this posted because it speaks to me in EVERY WAY!
Because, OMG, my characters are like that!!! I know people — authors — who have baby names by their computers and actually go ahead and name their characters for their stories. Gulp. Like you, I’ve never, ever named a character. Their mama and daddy named them. All I ever do is figure out their name. If I’m lucky, they’re a good one and will tell me right away. If I’m not, I’ll spend literally WEEKS seeing a scene in my head and will figure out the whole character’s family’s names before I find out theirs. (Thanks, Alex!)
I totally get you! Imagine my surprise the day I found out my character Annie, the one I’d been writing for months was actually called Annabella, her grandmother’s name, but she hated it. She was teased for it at school by all the Jennifers, Sarahs, Laurens and BAM for having an old woman’s name she never goes by it. She wouldn’t even tell me.
Jack’s all over, but so classic, no one minds. We all have them! I have two. I mean, we try to resist them, but can we really? I have two. Ehhh. One of them is Alex and Annie’s brother. 🙂 That family’s all trouble!
Yup. Just. Like. You! <3
I love the name Alex. (Bobbie Faye’s first ex was named Alex. Weirdly, I was convinced I had given him a last name, because I give every single character a last name… but, apparently, not him. I went through all three books trying to find one, and there isn’t one.)
And yep, their parents named them. I just have to listen to figure it out. Love the Annabella story! (Although that is a beautiful name, she should never have been teased!)
My Alex is a girl! Alexandra hehehehe! She doesn’t like her name very much, either, because her twin sister is named Claire. She feels like she got the short stick in this one. She’s siding with sister Annabella, because their other siblings are Dean, Dana, Jack, Claire and Ashley. Which is why they go by Alex and Annie 😉 Got it?
Someday, I’ll have to tell you how I found out their names. It’s the most amazing story ever! It took me over a week to finally see the part of the scene in which Claire actually said, “Alex!”
I can TOTALLY see where you’re going with that, Toni. Of course, when I work on the novel I’ve been trying to chip away at for a few years, my characters don’t feel real to me, nor does the situation.
I know, I KNOW, it’s supposed to be a fictional work, but it all has to feel realistic to me. So, the idea of me scrapping the whole thing and starting over from scratch is looking better and better all the time.
BJ, for what it’s worth, I’ve had to do two major (as in really, seriously MAJOR) rewrites of the current book I’m working on. The first was because I hadn’t set it up right (left out a very important piece of information that tumbled everything into motion, didn’t mention it ’til the third act of the original draft), and now, to correct a pacing issue. And while doing so, a couple of characters that really never came alive to me before informed me of their real names, and suddenly, they pop. My fingers are crossed that you, too, will find the right path for the book you’re working on!
Oh, Toni! I’m so glad I’m not alone in this. If the name isn’t right, the character sulks worse than a pre-teen who’s had her phone taken away. You’d think they’d tell us their freaking names. Make it easy on everybody, right? Not!
FYI, I love Jack as a name. I don’t think I’ve actually used it, but I get an instant image of the guy who proudly introduces himself with that name. At the moment, my two favorite names are Sean and Rory, bad boys with hearts of gold in two of my series, and currently vying for favorite hero of mine at the moment. Shhh. Don’t tell them that. They’ll be insufferable and I need them both for possible sequels. 😉
You nailed it — Jack likes his name, is proud of it, proud of what he’s fought to become in spite of his past. It’s been a rough road for him.
LOL on the battling heroes. Now you know how I felt about Cam and Trevor. 🙂
I have probably asked this before but it really intrigues me – do you characters talk to you?
Joyce, they do–in their way. I can “hear” them as I’m trying to write their dialog for a scene. I’ll know what cadence is Cam’s voice, for example, and how it’s different from Trevor’s, in spite of the fact that they’re both (technically) in law enforcement and have the same sort of alpha male issues. There are often times when I try to put words in their mouths (because I need something to happen, and need them to say something) and they’ll balk, and I’ll hear a male voice say, “no way in hell would I say it that way,” and then proceed to tell me how it should be. It’s weird. I’ve gotten used to it, but it’s weird.
I can’t write until I know what my characters names. That usually takes some time because I like strong names. I have favorite names too. I like Jack, Mitch, Jamison.
ooh, Good name choices, BJ. I love all three. 🙂